http://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/local/docs/hatecrime11.htm

Published Wednesday, April 11, 2001, in the San Jose Mercury News

Driver faces battery charge
HATE CRIME ALLEGED
WOMAN SAID TO HAVE MADE RACIAL REMARKS TO COUPLE ON I-680

BY GIL JOSÉ DURÁN
Mercury News

A San Jose woman who allegedly assaulted and threatened a Fremont couple during a traffic dispute on Interstate 680 in Pleasanton will face hate crime charges because of race-related remarks made during and after the attack.

Lorena E. Sanders, 22, was released from Santa Rita jail on $15,000 bail. She is charged with battery and a hate crime, according to court documents.

Syed Arshed Ali and his wife, Sayema Saifullah, told police they received minor injuries when Sanders allegedly punched and slapped them Sunday night after they pulled off the road. The couple also told police that Sanders -- who according to court documents is black -- rebuked Ali's driving and told them to ``go back to India.''

Sanders could not be reached for comment.

According to court documents, Sanders was tailgating a Volkswagen Jetta driven by Ali on Niles Canyon Road when she made an attempt to pass him. For reasons that are unclear, both cars ended up on the side of the road. Ali and his wife, who is pregnant, told police that Sanders got out of her car and yelled, ``America is not your country, you don't even belong here.''

At this point, the documents say, Sanders grabbed a Snapple bottle out of her car and threw it at Ali's windshield, breaking it. Sanders then sped away, but Ali followed her onto I-680 north and caught up with her at the Sunol Road off-ramp in Pleasanton. The cars stopped on the ramp, blocking traffic, and Sanders' car rammed into another car.

Police say Sanders climbed out of the passenger seat of her car and attacked the couple. Witnesses told police that Sanders punched and slapped the couple while shouting, ``You're going to die'' and ``You people should go back to your own country, you don't even know how to drive.''

Ali eventually placed Sanders under citizen's arrest and held her until police arrived. Once in custody, police said Sanders remarked to an officer that ``she felt this was a ridiculous waste of time and that she was sick of these people coming into the country like they own it.''

Sanders, who works as a loan agent, gave police a different version of the incident. According to Sanders, Saifullah made an obscene hand gesture and threw the Snapple bottle at her car as she passed the couple on the two-lane road. In an attempt to get away from the couple, Sanders said, she sped onto I-680, eventually stopping when she hit another car. She told police that Saifullah then pushed her and spit on her, forcing her to defend herself. Witness statements conflict with this account.

Reached for comment on Tuesday, Ali -- who has lived in Fremont for six months -- declined to discuss details of the incident.

``I think it's not a very good time for me to say anything right now except that this is very unfortunate,'' he said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact Gil José Durán at gduran@sjmercury.com or (510) 790-7315.